Five Christ-Like Characteristics

Enduring suffering is a challenge regardless of the situation. When the suffering is inflicted by another human being, then it is much more difficult to endure and not retaliate. That may be why Peter begins his exhortation to endure suffering with five characteristics embodied by our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s look at the five characteristics of like-mindedness, sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility from Edmund P. Clowney’s commentary on 1 Peter in the Bible Speaks Today series.

Called to a Life of Blessing

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 3:8

Peter names five characteristics of the life that brings blessing: like-mindedness, sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility. These are not virtues chosen at random. Like the fingers of the hand, they radiate from one centre and work together. The key to them all is the love of grace: they reflect the grace, love, and compassion of Jesus Christ. The teaching and example of Jesus have become the teaching of the apostles.

Characteristic #1: Like-Mindedness

Live in harmony with one another. The NIV translation paraphrases one word, ‘like-mindedness’. Greek and Roman philosophers spoke of the need for such harmony in the home and in the state. In Peter’s letter, however, the word has new depth. It is interpreted by the parallel terms, and by the focus of the letter on Jesus Christ. Peter describes the ‘clear mind’ in which Christians are to be united (4:7–11). It is the mind of those who prayerfully await the coming of the Lord and serve one another in fervent love. They prepare their minds for action by setting their hope on Christ (1:13). When Peter had urged Jesus not to speak of the cross, Jesus had rebuked him for minding the things of men rather than the things of God. Christians find oneness of understanding in the gospel of the cross.

The unity of mind Christians are to show includes harmony of attitude as well as of understanding. It relates directly to the humility and love that Peter goes on to mention. When Paul urged the Philippians to be ‘of the same mind’, he added ‘having the same love’, and continued, ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.’ The magnificent passage that follows describes how Christ humbled himself, even to the death of the cross. Being of one mind means having a common understanding of the truth, but it means more. When the truth of Christ is affirmed in arrogance it is denied. The ‘like-mindedness’ that Peter requires manifests the mind and love of Christ. It is precisely willingness to submit ourselves to others for Christ’s sake that undercuts the misunderstandings and hostilities that can divide the Christian community. That willingness flows from the love of Christ.

Characteristic #2: Sympathy

Christ’s love also shines in the sympathy that marks the Christian life of blessing. The author of Hebrews describes Christ as the high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. Peter has just spoken of the sympathetic understanding that husbands must show to their wives (3:7). Sympathy means readiness to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn.

In his vivid image of the body of Christ, Paul reminds us of the sympathy that exists among bodily parts: when one member suffers, the other members suffer with it. The love that binds the body of Christ together not only seeks the other’s good, but enters into the other’s needs and concerns. Such identification begins in the heart, but it is seen, often enough, in the event. Peter could remember the event that exposed his failure to ‘sympathize’, to suffer with Christ, who had come to suffer for him. Much contemporary research into human motivation and psychology has the purpose of manipulating people for economic or political advantage. Christian sympathy does not exploit; it shares and supports.

Characteristic #3: Brotherly Love

Love as brothers. Like these other graces, brotherly love is specifically Christian. It is not simply a sense of comradeship, but the knowledge that we have been given new birth. We are children of the heavenly Father and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ. As we have been loved by God, so we must love our fellow-believers. Here Peter returns again to the theme of the ‘family’ love of the Christian community (1:22; 2:17). Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers, since he has taken part in our flesh and blood.

Characteristic #4: Compassion

Each of these graces reflects the love of Christ. In none is this clearer than in the case of compassion: be … compassionate. It is God who has in Christ shown compassion to us. Paul urges us: ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ The root of the word refers literally to one’s inner organs, and therefore to one’s feelings. The Greeks associated inner organs with courage (cf. our use of ‘guts’). But in the Bible these inner organs are linked with mercy and concern (the ‘bowels of mercy’ in the AV). The prophet Isaiah uses the term as he seeks the mercy of the Lord. His cry is accurately, though euphemistically, translated, ‘Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.’

The Gospels speak of the compassion of Jesus for the crowds, and for the sick. Jesus describes the compassion of his Father in the parable of the prodigal son. In the parable of the good Samaritan Jesus binds that compassion upon his disciples.

The burden of the Lord’s teaching is the burden of Peter’s letter. We have received the free compassion of Christ’s grace. Jesus himself bore our sins; he suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous (2:24; 3:18). The love that he now requires of us as his people is not a self-righteous, legalistic love, working to score points for heaven. Rather, as those who are made heirs of the blessing of life eternal (3:9), we must model our love on the love of God in Christ. God’s compassion demands love like his, love that cannot be demanded, the love of free grace. Only God’s love, poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, can move us to show his compassion.

Characteristic #5: Humility

The last of the graces that Peter mentions is humility: be … humble. Friedrich Nietzsche scorned this biblical virtue. He called the Jews ‘a people “born for slavery” ’, and accused them of inverting values by making the word ‘poor’ synonymous with ‘saint’ and ‘friend’. The Scriptures do, indeed, give place to the poor and humble in contrast to the rich and proud. The remnant of God’s people, redeemed by his grace, are the poor and lowly. In Greek literature, by contrast, the word that Peter uses is often taken in a derogatory sense: ‘low-mindedness’.

For this grace, too, Christ is our model. He called disciples to him as one who is ‘gentle and humble in heart’. The word is a compound, like the first in this list, and the two are in close harmony, for if there is to be ‘like-mindedness’ there must also be ‘lowly-mindedness’. Peter will return to this theme, urging Christians to ‘clothe yourselves with humility’, to serve one another (5:5). Clearly Peter had learned humility the hard way. His pride had been crushed by the denials that shamed his boasting. But Peter sees humility as deeper than the levelling of pride. He finds it in the free humiliation of his Lord, not only in taking the towel and basin, but in taking the cross.

This is the lowliness that calls us to humble service. Christian humility will be mocked, as Jesus’ humiliation on the cross was. But it will be honoured by God in the triumph of the returning Lord. Even before that day, the power of Christian humility bears witness. Our world has seen the outworking of Nietzsche’s ‘master-race’ in Nazi Germany. Does it yet recognize the power of what Nietzsche scorned?

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